


Twisting the Knife

by caravanserais



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Oneshot, maiko
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-01
Updated: 2012-09-01
Packaged: 2017-11-13 07:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caravanserais/pseuds/caravanserais
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And Mai herself—she was supposed to be the Fire Lord’s lover, and if she wasn’t Zuko’s sweet little girl waiting for her banished prince, then what was she? She was <em>boring.</em> Maiko angst oneshot, post-The Promise Part 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twisting the Knife

**Author's Note:**

> Characters/Pairing: Mai/Zuko  
> Timeline: just after the events of The Promise Part 2  
> A/N: So I read The Promise Part 2 and basically had an emotional breakdown when they broke up my OTP ~~in the span of one page GENE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!~~ Then I decided to write angst to make myself feel worse because I’m self-destructive like that.  
>  Disclaimer: Avatar belongs to Bryke.

“You don’t love me like you think you do,” she’d wanted to say, but Mai had limits on the amount of pain she would inflict on herself.

Instead she retreated to the safety and boredom of her room and she’d stripped down to unstrap all one hundred and eight knives from her body and started throwing. The shifting of the weight of the hilts and blunted edges was soothing, soothing in the monotony that she’d steeped herself in for so long.  _Mai,_  she told herself,  _you’re boring._  Something hot and fiery reared up inside her for the tiniest of moments, and she wondered how long the monotony would last.

A polished hand arrow hit the wall. One more cut among many.

Ty Lee was off with the Kyoshi Warriors, all white and red-daubed lips, with fans that she had probably been born to wield. Azula was locked somewhere deep in the earth, and the last time Mai had seen her was a nightmare. It was the same Azula, all cold eyes and power seeping through every pore, and yet there was something gone horribly wrong. And Mai herself—she was supposed to be the Fire Lord’s lover, and if she wasn’t Zuko’s sweet little girl waiting for her banished prince, then what was she?

She was  _boring._ Another knife rammed itself into the wall, and she wondered how long it would take her to pluck them all out.

The look on Zuko’s face had been far too painful to watch, his eyes widening in anger and disbelief, sorrow and fear. It had been far worse than the first time, which had been over something as petty as a jealous lover’s spat at a party—something that had been made up in a matter of hours. “You don’t love me,” she’d wanted to tell him, but Mai wasn’t one for excessive violence. What was done was done. There was no need to waste one more blade.

She felt the careful balance of the shuriken leave her hand, and knew exactly where it would go. The delicately woven chambers of blood in his chest, the pulse that she thought was once the rhythm of her life, the crossroads from which all the veins in his body wove their courses.  _His heart._

The gleaming tip of the knife pierced a new cut in the wall.  _Zuko,_  she thought, the barest twitch of emotion tugging the corners of her mouth downward,  _this one’s for you._

A knock sounded on her door, a frantic voice cracking with emotion, desperate scraping at the lock. Mai furrowed herself deeper into the pile of shed clothing and dropped the knife in her fingers. Some things just weren’t worth trying for at all.


End file.
